Find minimum value from a List in Python

In Python, there are a number of ways to find the minimum value from a list. One way is to use the built-in min() function. Another way is to use a for loop to iterate through the list, keeping track of the minimum value seen so far.

Which method is best depends on the situation. If the list is very large, or if the values in the list are complex objects, the min() function will be more efficient. If the list is small, or if you need to know the index of the minimum value (in addition to the value itself), a For loop may be more appropriate.

We will explain all the methods to find the smallest values in a Python List one by one.

Solution 1: Find the minimum value from the list using min() function

Python has a build-in function called min() which can be used to find the minimum value from a list. The syntax for this function is min(list). This function will return the minimum value from the list.

Syntax

min(List)

Code example

numbers = [30, 50, 90, 10, 70, 20,]

result_min = min(numbers)

print("Minimum Value:", result_min)

Output

Minimum Value: 10

1. The code creates a list of numbers called 'numbers'.
2. The code finds the minimum value in the list 'numbers' using the min() function.
   
3. The code prints the minimum value.
   

Solution 2: Find the minimum value from a List using Python For loop

If you need to find the minimum value from a list in Python, you can do so using a For loop. This loop will iterate through the list, checking each value to see if it is less than the current minimum value. If it is, the minimum value will be updated. At the end of the loop, the minimum value will be the smallest value in the list.

numbers = [30, 50, 90, 10, 70, 20,]

min_val = numbers[0]

for num in numbers:
    if num < min_val:
        min_val = num

print("Minimum value is: {}".format(min_val))

Output

Minimum value is: 10

The code is looping through the list of numbers and comparing each value to the min_val variable. If the value of the current number is less than the min_val, the min_val variable is updated with the new value. This process repeats until the end of the list, at which point the minimum value is printed.

Solution 3: Using List.sort() function

If you want to find the minimum value from a list in Python, you can use the List.sort() function. This function will sort the list in ascending order, so the first element in the list will be the minimum value.

numbers = [30, 50, 90, 10, 70, 20,]

numbers.sort()

min_val = numbers[0]

print("Minimum value is: ", min_val)

Output

Minimum value is:  10

The above code is finding the minimum value in a list of numbers. The list is sorted in ascending order and then the first value in the list is printed, which is the minimum value.